Study Abroad Stories: Caen, France

This past summer, I studied abroad in Caen, France with two of my fellow classmates from my French class for about a month. The University of Caen in Normandy is large and beautiful, intersected by the tracks of the trams which pass through campus at all hours of the day.

I have many fond memories from my trip such as walking through ruins of a castle to get into town but my one of my favorite memories while on the trip was when we traveled to Giverny where we visited Monet’s gardens and house.

When we arrived with our other classmates in Giverny, we were greeted with the sight of luscious greenery which surrounds the gates leading into the gardens which were full of a variety of beautiful flowers covering the stone walls of the gates.

After grabbing our tickets and entering through the gates, we strolled through the gardens. It seemed I had never seen so many different flowers in one spot in my entire life. A stream runs through the entire garden and had several tiny row boats floating on it. While in the gardens, we found the famous bridge painted by Monet where we took many photos and compared it to the painting.

After working our way through the gardens, we entered Monet’s house where every room was a different vibrant color. The kitchen was a bright blue with white and blue tiles all over the walls. The dining room was canary yellow containing yellow curtains, yellow cabinets, yellow chairs and more. Every room was a splash of vibrant color containing old furnishing from when Monet and his family lived there.

In one room, there was almost every single painting he had painted. Though most were reproductions, people crowded around each one as if they were looking at real Monet paintings. After touring the rest of the house, my classmates and I walked happily to our bus to leave.

That day was amazing and will always be one of my favorite memories of my time abroad.